A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



The odd discrepancy between the value 

 of the endowment as stated in 1546 and 

 15+8 is not without parallel in Chantry Certifi- 

 cates. A possible explanation is that copyhold 

 lands are excluded from the former survey. We 

 are left to guess in what particulars the terms 

 of the foundation were not observed in 1548. 

 Certainly the default was not with respect to the 

 grammar school, because the commissioners for 

 the continuance of schools and curates of neces- 

 sity continued the school. They found the 

 chapel of Liverpool necessary, Walton church 

 being 4 miles off, and continued it with John 

 Hurde,* the chantry priest of St. John's chantry, 

 or the Rood Altar in the chapel, as its incum- 

 bent. Also, finding 



that a grammar Scole hath been heretofore continually 

 kept in the said parish of Walton with the revenues of 

 the chauntr)' of St. Katharine founded in the said chaple 

 of Liverpoole and that the Scole master there had for 

 his wages ^5 13/. iiJ. yearly of the revenues of the 

 same chauntrj-, which scole is very meet and necessary 

 to continue, [they directed that] the said grammar 

 scole in the said parish of Walton shall continue as 

 heretofore hath been used and Humfrey Crosse, scole- 

 master there, shall bee and remayne in the same rome 

 and shall have for his stipend and wages yerely 



Mr. Elton understands the reference to Walton 

 to imply that the school was at Walton church, 

 but the school was of course near the chapel and 

 the chantry down in Liverpool, as it always had 

 been. Liverpool merchants found it necessary to 

 start the chapel down by the quay where they 

 lived and did their business, and they naturally 

 had their school there too — not 4 miles away in 

 a country village, such as Walton remained until 

 sixty years ago. 



It will be observed that a third sum inter- 

 mediate between that given in the Certificates of 

 1546 and 1548 is now stated as the income of 

 the schoolmaster. The hypothesis of deduction 

 of ofEcial fees will not do, as the Chantries Act 

 had directed that all pensions and payments 

 under it were to be free of fees. The continu- 

 ance of the stipend at ^^5 131. ^^d. is based on 

 the finding that that was what it always had 

 been. The Ministers' Accounts show that 



' Mr. Elton assumes that the 'not' is an insertion 

 of a later transcriber in 1644, but the word appears 

 in the contemporary return in the Duchy records, 

 from which it was printed by the writer in English 

 Schools at the Reformation, in 1896. 



* Mr. Elton quite misapprehends the effect of this 

 certificate ; he confuses the Rood Altar, which was of 

 course on or by the Rood Screen, with the High Altar, 

 and though he says that John Hurde died shortly 

 after and was succeeded by John, whom he elsewhere 

 calls William Janson, he yet says (p. 104) that nothing 

 was done for the continuance of the chapel till 

 Queen Elizabeth gave the town the nomination of 

 the incumbent by patent 30 Oct. 1565. 



Humfrey Crosse received from the Duchy officials 

 his salary at the rate specified." 



The next mention of a school, though it is by 

 no means certain that it is a mention of the 

 grammar school, as claimed by Mr. Elton, is 

 12 August, 1555, when the corporation ordered 



that those persons whose names be here written, every 

 two persons for their streets, shall move their neigh- 

 bours for the clerk's wages, that is to say wages for 

 Nicholas Smyth, our clerk of the chapel and teacher 

 of their children, who have concluded, and a book is 

 made of [blank in MS.] good and lawful money of 

 England to be made good and paid to the said 

 Nicholas during his life. Also the moiety or one 

 dimidium of the corn market is given him as per in- 

 dentures made and sealed etc., and for want of having 

 the one dimidium of the corn market he to have 30/. 

 by the hands of the officers for the time being in that 

 behalf. 



The fact that Smith was clerk of the chapel 

 points to his being an elementary teacher rather 

 than the grammar schoolmaster, it being the 

 business of the clerk to teach the petties to 

 read ; the grammar school would not admit 

 them till they could. No doubt, here as else- 

 where, there were difSculties in getting masters 

 appointed by the crown. It was usual in the 

 case of these continued schools to let the appoint- 

 ment fall into the hands of the local crown 

 officials, the general surveyor or auditors, and at 

 Ipswich the delays and difficulties in appoint- 

 ments are definitely stated as the reason for 

 Queen Elizabeth's charter granting the right of 

 appointing to the corporation. The same was 

 no doubt the case here, and by a charter of 

 30 October, 1565, the appointment of the chap- 

 lain was conferred by letters patent * on the cor- 

 poration, as well as that of a discreet and learned 

 man to be schoolmaster in the grammar school,' 

 though the ancient stipend still continued to be 

 paid by the Duchy receiver for the county. 

 The corporation within a few days of the grant 

 of the charter agreed 



That it be nedeful to have a lerned man to be our 

 scolemaister for the preferment of the youth of this 

 town and that Master Maiore shall call the town to- 

 gether within 10 days and take order for his wages 

 over and above that the Queen's Maiestie doth allow 

 us. 



The Portmote book contains ' 



a copy of the book made of the benevolent gift and 

 grant of the corn burgesses of this the Queen's Majesty's 

 borough corporate and port town of Liverpool for 

 the supplying and supportation of a competent wages 



'Duchy of Lane. Mins. Accts. bdle. 173, No. 

 2714. 



' Notitia Cestr. ii, 192. 

 ' Port Mote, i, 250. 



594 



